Aston Martin AMR22, 2022

First pictures: Aston Martin reveals its new F1 car for 2022

2022 F1 season

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Aston Martin has revealed the AMR22, its new car for the 2022 Formula 1 season.

The design team behind the car was headed by chief technical officer Andrew Green, who said the new regulations for the coming season were a “massive challenge” to take on.

“The philosophy for the AMR22 is about being open-ended and giving ourselves flexibility,” said Green.

“No one has all the answers to maximising the regulations yet, so initially it’s about avoiding development cul-de-sacs – that was the key message to our design team. It’s a huge challenge, but everyone has risen to it, and we’re motivated to solve the questions that arise in development.”

The team expects to develop its new car quickly after the season begins.

“The AMR22 will be the first step in a lot of iterations in the year ahead, which will, in turn, forge the direction for 2023 and beyond,” said Green. “In lots of ways, this has been the busiest winter we’ve ever had because of the nature of such radically different set of regulations. There’s been very little carryover from 2021 into 2022.”

After winning a race in 2020 under its previous name Racing Point, the team fell back last year, finishing seventh in the championship. Green predicts the new rules will shake up the order among the teams this year.

“We expect to see a spread of performance across the grid early in the campaign, as there often is when
the regulations are reset, but I think you’ll see teams close up quicker than we have in the past,” he said. “So, we’re looking forward to getting out on track and finding out where the AMR22 stacks up.”

Pictures: 2022 Aston Martin AMR22

This article will be updated

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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84 comments on “First pictures: Aston Martin reveals its new F1 car for 2022”

  1. Just a reminder that Aramco is pretty much the worst-polluting company (since 1965): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions

    Nice looking car, but I cannot get behind the team this year

    1. Thanks for this first post, a good reminder. I’ve seen it posted here before, but again: I can’t see how they went from BWT (making the world better, sip by sip) to Aramco. And how Seb fits into that narrative.

      1. I think Seb is saving the world by not getting his haircut. Might need a new helmet size this year to squeeze it all in. Nice to see him making an effort.

        1. And Stroll still has a worse haircut

        2. Good to know haircuts are important. Where do you get yours styled?

    2. Thank you for highlighting the awful Aramco environmental track record.

      Shame on you F1… actions speak louder than words?! This is as bad as having Tobacco sponsorship on your car.

      1. Thank you! I’d argue it’s a lot worse though. Smoking is deeply damaging to individual health and second-hand to those around you. Companies like Aramco and Shell (not the only ones, but as the most prominent ones in F1 I can think of) are literally destroying the environment for every single living thing on Earth.

        Yet, which of these two products is not allowed to advertise…

        To me, it just feels like F1 is incredibly backwards thinking with sponsorship agreements like this and turns me off the sport as a whole. I’ve been an F1 fan since childhood, but the more I’m aware of the issues it’s becoming increasingly hard to justify being a fan of a sport that embraces these sponsors one weekend and campaign to end fossil fuels the next.

        It’s especially disappointing given how exciting the new tech rules are, I would otherwise be really excited for this season.

        1. Fair enough, but this is like criticizing a politician. They are a perfect reflection of the people. Unless of course you live in China, Russia or Saudia Arabia. I’m probably the only one here that doesn’t buy this product. It starts there. These companies wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for the consumer. Otherwise I agree.

        2. Heck, heavy smoking is one of the most effective way of reducing one’s lifetime carbon footprint! :)
          You’re right, this is worse than tobacco sponsporship. I hope Seb is brave enough to make their PR person squirm.

      2. I misread that as “Tabasco sponsorship” and was briefly very confused.

    3. I’m sorry but this is nonsense. The world needed the oil and these companies dug it up, it’s not like they made us use it. The demand was there. If anything, all those car manufacturers are worse using all that fuel with such inefficient engines all those years.

      1. +1. Utter nonsense to blame an F1 team for picking up the sponsership from a petroleum group. Access to cheap energy has helped pull hundreds of million of people out of poverty. If we are in a place now where the need for healthy energy surpasses the need for cheap energy, good, but let elected parties regulate instead of putting the blame on a single F1 team, especially considering the host of other companies already associated with F1, BP, Shell, Petronas. Nonsense.

        On another note, best 3-quarter angle of an F1 car Ive seen in years. Hope it holds up on the grid.

    4. Have you checked INEOS?

    5. concerned&confused
      10th February 2022, 21:21

      They are Saudi’s regime cash cow, it goes far beyond the environmental track record.

    6. Ban sponsorship! How disgusting. Cynics!

  2. petebaldwin (@)
    10th February 2022, 14:25

    Watched the launch – looks quite similar to what we’ve seen so far. Clearly they are showing off a lot more detail than the others but if this is their race car, it shows us that they’re all going to look very similar this year. Love the colour scheme!

    The main talking point for me though is Seb’s hair. That’s knocked 10 years off him! Money well spent.

    1. A couple of lines added and the livery becomes strikingly good!

      1. The cars shown on next days will not be the ones racing, but tha cars are looking good.

    2. Still wondering how much of the real car we’ve seen. They have been showing a bit more, but really not sure that the wings and the aero package in general is the real one. And pretty certain that if some additional aero appendices have been designed, they did not mount them on the car for the demo.

      Think we’ll need to wait for the test in Bahrain to really see what these 2022 will look like…

  3. Looks virtually identical to the Haas.

    Really getting concerned that things are going to look more spec than I feared.

    Just rename it Indycar+ or something because this just ain’t F1 anymore.

    1. Surprise surprise, more ‘grr back in my day, this just ain’t right’ old man grizzly cantankerous whingeing from the man called Roger Ayles.

      1. It’s not about been ‘better in my day’ as not everything was, Especially in terms of safety obviously.

        But something which was better & which was a part of the SPORT that myself & many enjoyed was the technical freedoms & ability for teams to innovate & come up with significant varying designs which looked different to each other & which which didn’t have the threat of an immediate ‘rules clarification’ hanging over it.

        The technical & development side is what many enjoy, It’s what got many into the SPORT & what helped keep them hooked. It’s what set F1 above all of the other categories, It’s what set it as the pinnacle of the sport, Which drivers & engineer’s aimed to get to. You start to lose & overly restrict those things & you just don’t have F1 anymore & that is where I fear we are heading & why I will always raise & highlight those concerns. Although I fear we have already gone past the point of no return, Especially since so many fans seem to care about nothing but the show & quantity rather than the SPORT & quality.

        If you want to watch a spec series where everyone can win & where you have artificial elements & all of that then go watch Indycar. Those of us however who love F1, Who love the technical side, The development side & everything that came with it have nowhere else to go because there is nothing else like F1 in the open wheel space. It’s us who are been driven away from the SPORT & left out in the cold & that is what frustrates & at times angers me.

        1. True but that still doesn’t explain your name.

          1. Hosford90 It’s not Ailes, it’s Ayles. And your comment is just whinging about whinging, which makes you sound twice as bad.

          2. What is with the attack on his name and your desire for personal information?

        2. @roger-ayles I do take your point but as we know technical freedom is one of the ways F1 was about to become unsustainable and extinct by being a money game, so for me personally this is still F1 even if in a different, and sustainable form. I’m sure it will hardly be ‘everyone can win’ just as Indycar is generally not that way, even as a true spec series. For me I take great pleasure in observing the innovation that F1 and the teams have taken on as a whole, with finally budget caps to keep things sustainable and give lesser teams a sniff of a chance again, and with the ground effects cars.

          Sure, I completely get the concept of more freedom to innovate, but that is just not today’s reality right now. Maybe things can open up more in the future, who knows. I also think that since the teams have signed off on this new chapter, they are on board, even if they have similar thoughts to yours. I think it would be moreso the wealthier teams that want the freedom of which you speak, for then they can just spend their way to Championships, or at least to eliminate much of the competition by chequebook right from the start, and keep it to one or two teams only with a realistic shot. The same ones over and over.

          I do know of course the likes of Adrian Newey et al bemoan the greater restrictions to innovation and I just think that if/when it ‘get’s worse’ by your prediction, there may come a point where the teams themselves will draw a line and say, you know what, this isn’t F1 anymore, so we’re out, at which point F1 will halt said alleged further restrictions and find a way to keep the teams happy to stay.

          For now I can’t wait to see F1’s innovation at work with this wholly new chapter, and one which should head it back more towards a driver vs driver series and less about engineers telling drivers what pace to drive in order to favour the finicky tires. I hope to see the innovation of DRS gone or repurposed. I hope and trust the new tires can be leaned on a bit without taking them out of their operating window and handcuffing the drivers. Those would be some great changes to what we have become accustomed, or should I say had come to having to accept.

    2. If someone would have repainted the 2021 cars in parc gerne over night we would have seen some funny races, as even if there were some distinctive features on each car it is mainly the paint job which makes them distinguishable. While 2022 cars look quote identically so far, detail is the key, so your claim about IndyCar is totally wrong. Should competition be as close as IndyCar thought I would be very delighted.

    3. You should take another look. Front wing, nose, airbox and sidepods already look vastly different from the Haas.
      I’m pretty sure all the cars will look even more differently at the season opener in Bahrain.

      1. Looks a lot faster than the Haas. Definitely, yup, faster.

    4. Identical to Haas? You need a pair of glasses man

    5. Looks nothing like the Haas ROFL, you’re just a whiney whinge bag LOL

    6. What are you smoking? Its completely different to the Haas. The Haas has a much more aggressive undercut behind the sidepods, these are more sloping. The front wings are massively different. The nose is totally different. Rear wings are quite different and the suspension geometry (on the front at least) looks quite different. The bargeboard area is more refined in the AM. You can tell they have different philosophies. AM is following Mercedes’ philosophy of low rake it seems, though hopefully the two cars are not very similar. Haas seems to be following Ferrari’s philosophy, which was somewhere in between. But its FAR from looking the same. Take the liveries off and you can still tell which is which. Honestly, if you cant see that Im questioning what you’re doing on this site (jk).

      1. I agree. It’s very different to the Haas. Espresso from above.

        1. Especially!

    7. It looks nothing like the Haas. And apart from 2017, this is the best looking generation of F1 cars since 1997!

    8. Maybe it’s the bits we can’t see – the underbody aero – where designers can make a difference.
      Draping it in a Union Jack like a military funeral was unfortunate, but the new shape’s refreshing, it looks sleek and fast.

      Until Lance gets in it…

    9. It at least looks a lot different than the second FIA showcar that Redbull presented. Haven’t seen the Haas, but it looks as different to the show car as the cars last year did. If the show car was built to the rule then they should appear with similar differences as last year. I don’t necessarily like how close they looked last year, but at least they won’t be closer.

    10. F1 cars have looked virtually identical to each other for years though….. Going to an Indycar like formula of just one chassis is what F1 should have done years ago to improve the racing and bring the price down

    11. @roger-ayles I think one of the reasons that cars (may?) look very similar are the strict regulations. But I think there is another reason, one that will never be banned out (and rightly so). Back in ‘the days’ there was much trial and error. Since there was no windtunnel, no computer dynamics, you could come up with crazy ideas and only test them once you entered the track. See the Ensign N179 and March 711 for example. Hideous (legendary?) cars but not very fast. Now all teams test all possible solutions in the factory before heading the track. Often 1 or 2 solutions are the fastest, so it is no wonder that they all will look alike. You want to be the fastest right?

  4. It looks quite nice. The shape of the nose, mixed with the colour scheme, kind of reminds me of the Jaguar in the early 00’s.

    But that speech from Lawrence Stroll sounded and looked extremely weird. Did anyone else get some robot-vibes during his speech? I couldn’t tell if it was actually Lawrence Stroll speaking or a robot 😐

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      10th February 2022, 14:30

      You could tell it wasn’t a robot because he kept tripping up over his words. It was like a sleepy, uninspired, bad actor trying to do an impression of a depressed robot.

      1. 🤣🤣🤣
        I’m not quite sure. These humanoid robots are getting pretty authentic 😅

      2. They program in the mistakes.

    2. I think he was obviously looking at an autocue. Very false and stunted. Cannot understand why he couldn’t just speak from the heart if he is so proud of it

  5. Wow, that’s an awesome GP2 car from 2009!

  6. Significant differences to the Haas around the front wing, nose, shape of the front plane of the chassis, air box, inlets, rear wing shape, body fairings around the PU, back end

    It’s nice to see a car that isn’t just a generic, formulaic FOM show car and it is interesting how many other teams are going to show floor details like AM.

    Looks good and the colour scheme is better than expected with the yellow highlights to differentiate from the Mercedes

  7. I miss having the ASTON MARTIN writ large on the rear wing, just to give it more a sense of identity, but I guess having two main sponsors means you’ve got to put their logos somewhere. Maybe they could put an AM logo on the outside of the front wing end-plates before the season starts.

    Not sure what’s going on with Sebastian Vettel though, he looks like a hobo someone’s dragged off the street and paid a fiver to put the suit on.

  8. Really like the livery, sharp looking car.

      1. And me. I’m impressed. Car looks really good. Best looking F1 car for about 10 years in my opinion.

  9. Sure looks faster than my Skoda!

  10. Will those wing mirrors even have a point? Surely they’re going to vibrate up and down so much, especially on those epically long stalks like that… seems weird.

    1. It’s hard to see in some of the views, but there is a (black) vertical support directly beneath the mirror going down to the sidepod.

  11. The top down shot is the most striking one. There is a significant change in the coke bottle shape which is different from the Haas renders.

    1. Yeah I noticed that too but then it is still pretty coke bottle around the bottom half of the sidepods.

  12. I prefer this green shape over last season’s & also like the yellow stripes.

  13. That’s a lot of cooling vents down the flanks – new approach to exhausts?

    Or is this something that’s inherited from the show car?

    1. Or an aero device?

      1. @muzza Look at other picture here and you will notice that the opening is much smaller than it seems at first. A bit curious by the angular aspect of this black piece and curious if it’s a way to adjust the size of the cooling depending on the track. A quite square and tiny vent feeding air in the sidepods.

        Sad that cars don’t show more difference (yet?) but I quite like their lines. There might be more difference than what we see given the importance of the underfloor.

        1. I was wondering the same thing about the black pieces on the side pod – do they adjust. If yes, can they use on the set up, close up as small as possible and open to slightly to achieve the correct engine temps. Thus maximize the areo advantage without having to change side pods.

    2. I was just coming to post about the cooling vents, at first I thought they were graphics until I looked at all of the shots. It is very interesting, RB car has a smooth flank that we have traditionally seen. It will be interesting to see the other cars and if they have similar cooling and how this evolves over the season on the AM car.

      Maybe it is a suggestion from Merc dept and we will see this on all Merc cars.

      The front wing also had me wondering, how the lower lip will handle the curbs? Appears like it would be susceptible to damage.

    3. The airflow over/around the sidepods is less critical with the majority of the downforce coming from underfloor so maybe that means cooling can take priority on top of the side pods instead of clean flow to the wing?

  14. I don’t understand what’s going on with the sidepod intakes. Are they hiding half of it or is it just a color scheme?(the black part)
    Also, did they bend the rules(literally), and turned the floor extensions into bargeboards?

    Anyway, machine looks great

  15. It looks like a sticker car?! Red Bull could learn them a thing or two about how to coherently lay out the sponsors on your car.

    Also, the accent colour —the venomous yellow green— should have been the main colour, with British racing green accents. The current all racing green livery has too many Caterham and Jaguar vibes.

  16. are these wheel covers mandatory? They spoil what is otherwise a nice looking car.

    1. Yes, they are. They can probably choose the color though…

      1. Yeah they’re meant as one of the measures to help reduce turbulence and wake created by the cars, as are the winglets/fenders above the front tires.

  17. Very different from the Red Bull and HAAS cars. Looks very good. But I’m sure the Red Bull will be very different on the starting grid from their official livery.

  18. This was actually more interesting than I expected from Aston, and a launch car. Yes, cars will be similar in many aspects this year. But, most interesting to me here is that they are venting out ALL their sidepod cooling through vents on top of the bodywork. There are no exits at the back at all what I can see. Makes the sidepods very long and the coke-bottle area very abrupt in top view, but then extremely slim right between the rear tires.

  19. I’m intrigued by the upswept leading edge of the front wing. That’s an unusual choice

    1. @zapski Same, it’s very much an interesting wing design in general. The front element hanging off the rest of the wing, rather than the nose cone, is very much an interesting choice (it looks very odd, especially from the front view). Only time will tell if it proves to be the right direction

    2. @zapski Same, it’s very much an interesting wing design in general. The front element hanging off the rest of the wing, rather than the nose cone, is very much an interesting choice (it looks very odd, especially from the front view). Only time will tell if it proves to be the right direction

  20. AM at least look like they are ready to roll, so hopefully they’ll be able to rack up the miles in testing.

  21. I absolutely loved what I saw regarding the apparent proposed solutions!

    That said, from the overalls to the car tint, the looks of it are of such poor taste for a premium brand under a fashioned man’s rule.

    Good thing what truly matters is the performance. I’m keen to see what this team can achieve this season.

  22. I like it. I also think these new cars somewhat vindicate Lola’s 2012 IndyCar design bid. The looks are very similar if anyone remembers Lola’s last gasp.

  23. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
    10th February 2022, 18:49

    Must admit: I really like this livery. Reminds me a lot of one of the available options of personal liveries on the F1-games. The yellow line is a perfect finishing touch. 10/10 for me

    1. Lewisham Milton
      10th February 2022, 20:18

      It’ll be red when it’s on soft tyres

  24. Anybody noticed the car in the graphics is missing one frontal WISHBONE?!? HAhhaahahah, that’s a hilarious mistake.

  25. The last time a car was this shade of green with new rules, it had a hideous nose.

  26. Striking and beautiful livery. The green reming a bit of Jaguar from early 2000. Interesting!

    1. Ops , remind!

  27. Doesn’t look as wildly different from last year’s cars as I thought it might. But the looks mean nothing, the racing is the most important thing. I just hope they dump Masi

  28. I can see a lot of you guys are talking about sponsorships and haircuts…and people are wondering why the end is near…well Jesus has so much patience…:))
    Lets just enjoy that beautiful racing green color, and get on with our lives!

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